SKOWHEGAN — When Nancy Ames’ daughter was a child, she would surround herself with colorful stuffed toys to fall asleep.

That little girl grew up and now those toys — all monkeys — are centerpieces of a domestic violence awareness project launched by Skowhegan’s Semper Fidelis Club, a local women’s club.

Purple boxes — each containing a stuffed toy monkey — have been distributed to a dozen businesses in Skowhegan for collection of new children’s pajamas, socks, toothbrushes, story books and other items, which will be donated to children at the Family Violence Project shelter in Somerset County.

Ames, the club president, said that often when mothers and children leave a troubled home, they are able to take with them only the clothes on their backs.

“What they’re actually doing is what we’re hoping will take hold in all the communities in Kennebec and Somerset counties and that’s a collaborative response to domestic violence,” said Nan Bell, community education coordinator for the Family Violence Project. “I think it’s awesome.”

The project’s help line received 1,971 calls for service from almost 900 people between April and September, according to Nathan Richards, Family Violence Project board chairman. The four bedrooms in the shelter, the location of which is undisclosed, are usually filled, said Richards, who is also pastor of the Norridgewock and Solon First Congregational churches. He also said October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The club coordinated with Jennifer Olsen, executive director of Main Street Skowhegan, to place the club’s Monkey Business donation boxes in local businesses. In addition, Skowhegan Area High School students and Jobs for Maine Graduates have donated bags with other items in them to go into the boxes.

Olsen said the collaborative efforts by Semper Fidelis and the Family Violence Project hopes to teach the community that there is hope and that people can change the way they treat one another.

“Change is possible, first of all — we have to send that message to the families affected and to the community, that situations can change,” she said. “It’s a process, not an event, so it’s going to take time for families to get better at how they live and love each other. All change requires personal change; we all have to learn to behave a little bit differently.”

The Semper Fidelis project will continue in downtown Skowhegan into the middle of November.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com